Enhanced search engine

ABSTRACT

A search engine system capable of displaying indicative information to a user from searches performed by entities connected directly or indirectly to the user, wherein said system includes at least one host computer processor connectable to one or more network(s), a database accessible over said network(s), a plurality of data input devices connectable to said network(s) said search engine being accessible over said network(s).

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/334,816,filed on Dec. 22, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/029,780, filed on Feb. 17, 2011, which is acontinuation of and claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/573,401, filed on Jan. 22, 2007, which is a national stage entryof PCT/NZ04/00228, filed on Sep. 22, 2004, which claims priority fromNew Zealand Patent Application No. 528385, filed Sep. 22, 2003, all ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to a means for enhancing asearch engine and in particular, providing search-related informationderived from one or more entities known to the user.

BACKGROUND ART

The interconnectivity of individuals and organisations has increasedexponentially in recent times with the advent of varioustelecommunication means, including the Internet. The very success ininformation availability and distribution afforded by the Internet hasplaced a premium on effective means of identifying information relevantor interesting to the user. Internet search engines are the mostprevalent means of extracting relevance from the ever expanding wealthof internet material. However, the majority of search engines sufferfrom numerous shortcomings.

The sheer volume of information available on even the most esotericsubjects requires search engines to filter and prioritise the searchresults. The mechanisms by which this ranking is achieved include:

-   a) Keyword frequency and meta tags;-   b) Professional editors manually evaluating sites;-   c) How much advertisers are prepared to pay, and-   d) Measuring which web-sites webmasters think are important. This is    done by link analysis, which gives more weighting to sites dependant    on what other sites are linked to them.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,675 (enclosed herein by reference) discloses a meansof refining searches according to the behaviour of previous usersperforming the same search. While this removes the web-site from itssole dependency of the above criteria a)-d) for its ranking, it is stilldriven by the influence of the whole web populous, whose interests andtastes may differ greatly from a given individual user.

It would be desirable to provide a means of influencing the ranking orweighting of search results according to the preferences of entities(individuals, groups or organisations) deemed of more relevance orimportance to the user.

PCT/NZ02/00199 (incorporated herein by reference) also by the presentapplicant discloses a personal contact network system whereby a user mayform a network of contacts known either directly or indirectly to theuser. The network may be used for a variety of applications and takesadvantage of the innate human trait to give a higher weighting to theopinions of those entities with whom a common positive bond is shared,such as friendship.

As outlined in patent application PCT/NZ02/00199, incentives to restrictthe distribution and flow of information within a network (or the searchresults of a search engine) include obtaining some form of filtering ofirrelevant, useless, unwanted, offensive, intrusive or in any wayundesirable information or interaction with other nodes/entities. Humansconsciously and subconsciously already utilise such filtering in theirdaily life by placing greater weighting on information from friends andacquaintances than from unfamiliar sources.

Throughout virtually every aspect of human life, economic, social,personal and business decisions are either directly or indirectlyaffected by the preferences, tastes and actions of our friends,colleagues and acquaintances. This is in contrast to widely acceptedeconomic theory in the fields of, for example, consumer purchases whereit is assumed individuals make rational choices based upon the availableproduct or service information. In actual fact, a recommendation or anadverse comment from a close trusted acquaintance regarding a specificproduct will often override other factors in a commercial purchasedecision, rightly or not. There are many other areas in which theopinions of respected acquaintances or even organisations can affect thedecision making of individuals or organisations.

Examples of just a few applications or activities in which trusted orrespected contacts or recommendations play a significant role includeseeking employment and filling job vacancies, investment opportunities,academic co-operation, finding accommodation or people to shareaccommodation with, buying and selling goods and services, arrangingsocial/sporting functions, finding friendship, romantic and/or socialrelationships and so forth.

Contemporary living has confronted many individuals with a daily surplusof information. This bewildering array of choices and decisions vies forthe individual's attention in almost every aspect of their work,recreation, and social lives. The vast majority of information sourcesreceived by most individuals is biased to some extent by commercialinterests. Consequently, there is at least the perception theinformation may be incomplete, misleading or false. The lack ofindependent objectivity from these information sources leads toscepticism and/or a sense of futility, helplessness, or ambivalence inobtaining worthwhile advice. In contrast, a recommendation by a trustedfriend of a particular product, service or the like, is likely to begiven far greater weighting. Such recommendations will often be accordedfar greater significance than any number of expensive, professionallyproduced, and theoretically compelling advertisements/productrecommendations.

An individual may seek a friend's opinion on a variety of issues, asidefrom commercial purchase issues. The choice of plumbers, dentists,lawyers and other suppliers for example, may be strongly influenced bypersonal recommendation. Whilst such specific choices may only ariseinfrequently, friends and acquaintances are often in frequent contactand may cover a wide range of matters, includingopinions/recommendations on issues such as books, films, entertainment,restaurants, and many others.

It would thus be desirable to harness the recommendations, opinions anddiscriminatory abilities of a user's friends, acquaintances (or anyother entity known directly or indirectly to the user) to enhance theresults of a search engine. It would also be desirable to provide a userwith indicative information derived from the search activities conductedby the members of the user's unique personal network.

All references, including any patents or patent applications cited inthis specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission ismade that any reference constitutes relevant prior art. The discussionof the references states what their authors assert, and the applicantsreserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the citeddocuments. It will be clearly understood that, although a number ofprior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does notconstitute an admission that any of these documents form part of thecommon general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any othercountry.

It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varyingjurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusivemeaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwisenoted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that itwill be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components itdirectly references, but also other non-specified components orelements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method orprocess.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoingproblems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of exampleonly.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

According to one aspect, there is provided a search engine systemcapable of displaying indicative information to a user from searchesperformed by one or more entities connected directly or indirectly withthe user,

In one embodiment, said entities are ‘user contacts’.

According to a further aspect, the present invention includes a systemproviding the user with a private personal contacts network of usercontacts.

As used herein, the term ‘entity’ or ‘entities’ refers to anyindividual, family, personal or organised network, organisation, club,society, company, partnership, religion, or entity that exists as aparticular and discrete unit.

The term ‘search engine’ is not necessarily restricted to Internetsearch engines and may also include any other electronic data searchsystems for interrogating databases and or networks. Although thepresent invention is described herein with respect to an Internet searchengine, it should be understood this is for exemplary purposes only andthe invention is not necessarily limited to internet application.

Preferably, each user contact includes a connection factor indicative ofthe degree of separation between the user contact and the user.

Preferably, said private personal contacts network providesinterrelationship context information between said entities and/orbetween a user contact and the user, said interrelationship contextinformation including said connection factor and optionally one or moreentity attributes.

Preferably, said system entity attributes include at least oneidentifying characteristic and optionally, information regardingpersonal details, factors or interests; friends; relations; schoolalumni; employment factors; business colleagues; professionalacquaintances; sexual preferences, persuasions, or proclivities;sporting interests; entertainment, artistic, creative or leisureinterests; travel interests, commercial, religious, political,theological or ideological belief or opinions; academic, scientific, orengineering disciplines; humanitarian, social, security/military oreconomic fields and any combination of same.

Searches include any interrogation of a database via a network, inparticular a search of web-sites via the internet.

Preferably, each search includes user inputted keywords and an output ofsearch results.

Keywords may include one or more words, phrases, images and/or any otheralphanumeric characters.

In its broadest sense, the present invention provides two forms ofindicative information, namely search suggestions and search resultsweighting. Whilst both forms of information are known, neither has beenpreviously derived from the search activities of the user contacts.

Thus, according to a further aspect of the present invention, theindicative information includes search suggestions, and/or searchresults weighting derived from searches, search results, or othernetwork/internet-related activities of the user contacts.

This enables a powerful insight into the activities of the user contactswhich may be of direct relevance for a variety of reasons. In the caseof close friends (i.e. direct contacts) the suggestions are likely to bein areas of similar interest to the user, or of interest purely due tothe existing relationship between the entities. Similarly, if thelinking interrelationship context information between the entities andthe user is a common entity attribute of membership of a commonorganisation such as a large company for example, the suggestions fromthe other entities may be of relevance for commercial purposes.

According to one embodiment, said suggestions include, but are notrestricted to;

-   -   recent searches denoting the most recent keywords or search        results (such as a list of web pages) associated with the        keywords used by the user contacts;    -   recent web-sites denoting the most recent web sites accessed by        the user contacts either directly, or via recent searches;    -   popular web-sites denoting a ranking of web sites most regularly        visited by, and/or recommended by the user contacts;    -   popular searches denoting a ranking of the most popular keywords        or search results associated with the keywords used by the user        contacts,    -   high-flying searches denoting a list of keywords or search        results associated with the keywords ranked according to their        rate of increase in the popular searches ranking.    -   high-flying web-sites denoting a list of web-sites ranked        according to their rate of increase in the popular web-sites        ranking.    -   popular or recently accessed paid web listings.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the suggestionsmay be based on a selective input from the user contacts filteredaccording to at least one filter criteria including the elapsed periodsince the suggestion creation, the interrelationship contextinformation, the connection factor and/or entity attributes of thecontributing user contact

The suggestions may be displayed adjacent the search results or as anoptional toolbar or window with corresponding labelling or some genericterms such as “What's Hot” or the like.

In order that very popular suggestions do not dominate for prolongedperiods, each suggestion may have an associated decay factor. The decayfactor may be a number between 0 and 1 and be varied according to thenature of the suggestion is so that the perceived popularity does notlast indefinitely.

An automatic human response to viewing a listing or ranking is toperceive greater importance of the results at the top of the list, evenif the order of the listing is stated as of being random orun-prioritised. Thus, to overcome this inherent bias, greater weightingmay be applied to listings such as the search results or the suggestionsaccording to their position down a list, when calculating theirperceived popularity.

The present invention may make use of the private personal contactsnetwork system described in the earlier co-pending PCT applicationPCT/NZ02/00199, which discloses means for creating such a network,operating same, and a range of possible applications. Numerous methodsof enhancing the quality of the search results provided by searchengines according to particular search queries are known, includingthose disclosed in the applicant's earlier patents U.S. Pat. No.6,421,675, U.S. Ser. No. 10/155914, U.S. Ser. No. 10/213017 NZ518624PCT/NZ02/00199 and NZ528385, which may be utilised by the presentinvention and thus incorporated herein by reference. Preferably, inaddition to a connection factor indicative of the separation between anentity and the user, said interrelationship context informationoptionally also includes a connection factor indicative of theseparation between user contacts in said private personal contactsnetwork.

It will be appreciated that there is a distinct difference in thepresent invention between organised networks and personal contactsnetworks. An organised network forms a group/organisation with definedmemberships who all have a common aim, or interest such as, commercialorganisations, companies, corporations or groupings; political parties;academic or engineering institutes; sporting bodies and so forth. Thus,all organised network members have at least one common entity attribute,i.e. membership of the organised network.

In contrast, a personal contacts network is formed from contacts withfriends and colleagues that are unique to an individual. Thus, anindividual user of the present invention may be linked to other entity'spersonal contacts networks and be linked (or even be a member of)organised networks. The present invention provides the flexibility toregard organised networks such as a commercial company or an instituteof engineers as a single user contact with various entity attributesrelating to the whole company/organisation, an/or to consider theindividual members of the organised networks as individual user contactswith at least one common entity attribute. Which of these options isfollowed may be varied according to the nature of the search beingundertaken by the user.

Preferably, access to the interrelationship context information betweenthe user and said entities may be restricted. According to one aspect ofthe present invention, said restricted access is defined by the user.

Preferably, each said identifying characteristic includes the entity'sname and preferably a means of contacting the entity, including ane-mail address; telephone and/or facsimile number; postal address and/orany communication means capable of individually communicating with theentity or any combination of such means.

Preferably, said identifying characteristics also optionally include atleast one of said entity attributes.

Optionally, said identifying characteristics may include supplementaryattributes of said user or entity.

Preferably, an entity becomes part of the network system by independentregistration or by accepting an invitation from a registered entity,i.e. a user contact.

Entities agreeing to inclusion in a user's personal contacts network aresaid to be direct user contacts. According to one embodiment, entitiesincluded in the database system which are indirectly or unconnected to auser may become directly connected by mutual agreement, preferably byone entity sending an invitation and the other accepting. Potentialusers of such a system can be reassured that they will be included in aprivate network whereby only others with a common connection factor(e.g. friends, friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends andso forth) will be able to access their personal details if they chooseto make them available.

The present invention enables information flow not only betweenimmediate acquaintances, but also with the subsequent tiers of entityacquaintances, e.g. friends of friends, friends of friends of friends,and beyond to include even larger domains entities. The core principlesand elements of the invention, namely the ability to transfer search andweb-related information within a network whose members are directly orindirectly known to the user, giving an interrelationship context to anyinformation transfer, may be applied a diverse range of applicationswithout need to adapt the principles of operation.

As referred to herein, if two entities are linked through any number ofintermediate entities they are said to be “connected”. Furthermore, iftwo entities exist independently in the database system or a personalcontacts network with no intermediate entities connecting them, they aresaid to be “disconnected”.

In one embodiment, the said connection factor incorporates a connectionpath length between two entities, given by the minimum number ofconnections in a chain of entities separating two entities.

In a further embodiment, the said connection factor incorporates thedegree of separation between two entities and is equal to the shortestconnection path length of all the available connection paths between theentities, wherein an entity that is directly connected to another entityis said to be a direct contact giving a “1^(st) degree contact,” and hasa connection path length of one; two entities connected via oneintermediate entity are said to be “2^(nd) degree contacts,” and have aconnection path length of two, and wherein any two entities whoseshortest connection path is via “N-1” intermediate entities (if any),with a path length of “N” are an “N^(th)” degree contact, where “N” isan integer. Entities having a 2^(nd) or higher degree contact are saidto be indirect contacts, or indirectly connected.

According to one embodiment, the present invention is configured toallow a user to apply a selective input to the user's suggestions byusing a filter criteria of controlling the value of N^(th) degreescontact of entities to be included, where N is a variable determined bythe user.

In a further embodiment, the filter criteria for said selective inputmay be linked to a predetermined activity. Thus, if the user isinterested in a particular event, or activity, they may tailor theiruser contacts to reflect particular aspects of the predeterminedactivity.

Alternatively, a user engaged in one or more said predeterminedactivities may specify the action to apply to

-   -   all degrees of contact in the user's personal contacts network,        at any connection path length, or    -   the entire system network of all nodes, including those who are        not connected to the user.

Preferably, said applications include (but are not limited to) consumerdecisions, buying, selling, trading loaning; findingflatmates/roommates, tenants; organising activities and events,recommendations/opinions including those related to films, plays, books,employment, services, tradesmen, accommodation, restaurants and thelike, comparison and explorations of common interests, e.g. horseriding, snowboarding, etc; sharing peer-to-peer personal or businesscreative work or content, e.g. photos, art-work, literature, music;managing a club or society; locating/supplying/“blacklisting” providersof goods or services; business or technological advice unsuitable forpublication; recruitment, job-seeking; estate agents; venture capital;collaborative ventures; referrals; police/security informationgathering/informants; event manager; address book manager; headhunting;book mark service; spam filtering; car sharing; sales leads; marketentry advice; real-estate; sharing personal or business files; companyknowledge management; medical advice; travel organiser,lending/borrowing; house-sitting; baby-sitting; classifiedadvertisements; finding musicians.

In addition, the present invention permits said selective input to bereceived from networks outside the system network.

It will be appreciated that there are numerous potential reasons forlimiting the degrees of separation of entities used by the user for anyselective input, said reasons including, but not limited to, social,economic, or political contexts such as trust, discretion, interest,association, preference, shared experience, ethnicity, religion,language, location, allegiance, alliance, treaty, politics, orgovernance.

It will be appreciated there are numerous methods of customising theselective input to the user's suggestions. In one embodiment, thesuggestions are a weighted average of direct contacts and indirectcontacts. In alternative embodiments, the selective input may be definedby the user.

The user contacts associated with the suggestions most frequently chosenby the user may be designated preferred user contacts. The designationof preferred user contact may be performed directly by the user, orcalculated by the system by determining the user contact associated withthe most popular suggestions previously selected by the user.

In yet further embodiments, the selective input may be at leastpartially weighted to suggestions from the preferred user contacts.

The search engine system effectively learns which user contactsuggestions the user prefers. These may not necessarily be directcontacts of the user and may indirectly indicate a potential similarityin interests or tastes with that entity. The present invention thusprovides a means (described more fully later) for contacting the entityto further pursue the potential common ground.

Alternatively, the selective input may be varied according to otherknown factors regarding the user contact including the interrelationshipcontext information, the connection factor and/or entity attributesassociated with the contributing user contact.

The user may for example balance the number (and degree of contact) ofuser contacts to provide the selective input for the suggestions againstthe variety and volume of the suggestions generated.

This present invention may readily be configured to specific items orissues people search for such as news, pictures, books, auctions,products, chat rooms, games, e-cards, investments, song downloads, etc.

People naturally tend to share an interest in the same news items aspeople in their social network (either personal contacts networks ororganisations). The present invention provides a powerful means to sortnews items according to the interests of the direct user contacts forexample, (or to optionally extend that to 2nd degree, 3rd degree, orfurther contacts or organised networks) thus providing an effectivefilter for the thousands of available stories on any given day.

It will be appreciated that during the initial use of the search engine,there will not be any existing suggestions from user contacts. Instead,the same searches may be populated by results from searches from all theusers of the search engine.

As previously discussed, in addition to providing suggestions to theuser, the present invention provides weighted search results. Thisweighting may be provided in addition to, or instead of the existingmechanisms, namely:

-   -   Keyword frequency and meta tags;    -   Professional editors manually evaluating sites;    -   How much advertisers or web-sites are prepared to pay, and    -   Measuring which web-sites webmasters think are important. This        is done by link analysis, which gives more weighting to sites        dependant on what other sites are linked to them. The overall        popularity, the popularity of a sub set of users (e.g. NZ        people, engineers) or the user's own previous searches (as        disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,675)

The present invention determines the relevance of the search resultsaccording to the preferences of the user's unique private personalcontacts network of contacts as discussed above. In a similar manner tothe means of generating the suggestions, the search results associatedwith a keyword may be weighted according to a selective input from theuser contacts, including filter criteria related to theinterrelationship context information, the connection factor and/orentity attributes associated with the contributing user contact.

Thus for example, the user may give a stronger weighting for 1^(st)degree contacts compared to 2^(nd) degree contacts. Using the example ofa search under the keyword terms “holiday destinations”, the user couldlearn their network of contacts shows a preference for skiing in theFrance during the winter and for the Greek islands during summer.However, a different user may have seen different results even if theylive in the same location, and even had the same occupations, as theirpersonal contacts network of contacts would inevitably be different,with consequently different holiday preferences.

The search results may be further refined by specifying the selectiveinput filter criteria to include various entity attributes relevant tothe search such as a particular occupation, sporting interest or thelike. Conversely, if a particular set of filter criteria closely matchan entity disconnected from the user, the system may prompt the user toprompt the entity to be connected to the user

Equally, the system may prompt the user for communication (e.g. e-mail,Instant messenger, phone etc) with a user contact who last performed thesearch, or recommended a particular web-site/search result. Thiscommunication may be via a link (e-mail or we link) adjacent to thekeyword search terms and/or web-sites and could be configured to beeither anonymous communication or not.

In one configuration for example, the user contact is not initiallyidentified to the user, though the user is identified in the e-mail viasome form of interrelationship context information such as theconnection factor/entity attribute e.g. your direct contact Rick knowsSue (your 2^(nd) degree contact who knows the sender directly. The usercontact may respond anonymously (via a web-site) or reply to the e-mailincluding their direct e-mail address.

Self-evidently, most web-sites seek to maximise the number of usersvisiting their site. The present invention provides a means forweb-sites to receive more web-traffic by promoting the search engine totheir customers.

According to one embodiment, a participating partner web-site (e.g. acommercial retail web-site) is given a unique link (a URL, a ‘clickable’graphic or search box) to the search engine, configured such that usersclicking on the search engine link are linked to a search page with theparticipating web-site listed as the top of the popular searches and/orrecent web-sites suggestions listing.

Any user accessing the search engine via this route who then invitestheir user contacts to also use the search engine service will also seethat participating partner web-site listed and may visit the site. Thus,the partner web-site may use the present invention as a means ofmarketing themselves to the connected entities of their existingcustomers.

It is also a means to increase utilisation of the present invention byproviding web-sites with an incentive to include a link to the searchengine without any direct drawback. Further web-sites may be enticed tobecome partner web-sites and include a link to the search engine ifwebmasters of web-sites already using the search engine invitewebmasters of other web-sites to use the search service whereby inreturn both web-sites are listed under the appropriate suggestions.Thus, each participating web-site has an incentive to get otherweb-sites to use the search service as it will generate more traffic fortheir own site.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the searchservice may also be configured to conduct searches solely of material onthe partner web-site instead of, or as well as ‘all internet’ searches.The partner web-site may also display a list of suggestions either basedon the generic search activities of all users, or for users having theirown private personal contacts network, customised to reflect thesuggestions associated by the activities of their user contacts on theparticipating web-site. On appropriate commercial web-sites, arecommendation to related products to the one being searched for whichwere bought, viewed, subscribed to and so forth may be made by previoususer contacts to the site.

The product or other search recommendations may not necessarily berestricted to a single web-site, whereby the user may view relevantsearches previously accessed by their user contacts across a number of(partner and non-partner) sites, thus increasing the web-activity on allthe web-sites involved.

For example on the ‘all internet search’, recommendations may directusers to do a search on a partner web-site. This will enhance traffic tothe partner web-site. Similarly, on a partner web-site, recommendationsmay direct users to do a search on the ‘all internet search’ or toanother partner web-site.

A further aspect of the present invention is the method for a partnerweb-site or broker to act as an intermediary between advertisers (orrepresentatives of advertisers) and sites which feature the searchengine and suggestions relevant to the advertiser product(s),service(s), website(s), or company(ies).

In one embodiment, a partner web-site would offer a service directly toadvertisers or representatives of advertisers. They could offer theadvertiser two variations of advertising to the users of the partnerweb-site. In one variation, the advertiser suggestion(s) would be madeavailable and seeded to all the users of the partner web-site or asubset of them, and word of mouth amongst those users and their contactswould help spread the visibility of the suggestion(s), possibly in theform of recommendations. In another variation, the advertisersuggestion(s) would be seeded to those partner web-site users who hadpreviously shown interest or propensity to click on similarsuggestion(s).

In another embodiment, the owner of the present invention could providethe broker service as an intermediary between advertisers and partnerweb-sites. Then the partner web-sites would not be involved in theselection of advertisers and suggestions but would simply make theiruser base available for the seeding of suggestions and distribution ofrecommendations.

In a third embodiment, the owner of the present invention could presentit to firms currently working as brokers or providing web searchadvertising directly, in which they sell sponsored search results toadvertisers at fixed-price or auction, while guaranteeing the advertisera certain position in the results presented to a user who performs asearch on the keyword purchased by the advertiser. These firms wouldthen be able to offer an additional service, in which advertisers bidfor or buy the right to be included in suggestions to partner site usersand individual users or networks of users who have indicated an interestin or shown a propensity to click on similar suggestions orrecommendations

Instead of using a full Internet web-browser window to access the searchengine, the user may download a toolbar that remains resident throughall the user's web-browser usage. Such downloadable toolbars are known,however, the technology may be enhanced by incorporation of the presentinvention. Firstly, in known manner, the toolbar permits searches to beperformed directly from the user's web-browser without need to access aseparate search engine web-site. Secondly, the tool bar could alsomonitor the web-sites accessed by the user directly without conducting akeyword search as part of the determination of the suggestions data andsearch weightings.

The tool bar may also display or provide access to the most recentsuggestions data from the user contacts.

The monitoring ability of the toolbar enables the system (with theuser's permission) to track the user's web-surfing activities to allweb-sites. Consequently, upon accessing a particular web-site, the usermay be optionally notified by the toolbar of their user contacts whovisited that site, and what a subsequent sites the user contactaccessed.

As an example;

1) A User is informed by a user contact X of a web-site Y related toholiday homes in New Zealand.

2) The user accesses site Y and is notified on the toolbar that(optionally) user contact X accessed this site, or (if the usercontact's identity is withheld) notified that when some of their usercontacts from their network accessed site Y, they also visited site Z.User contact X may optionally have made a recommendation regardingeither site Y or Z, which is also notified to the user via the toolbar.

3) The web-site Y and or Z can pay for the privilege of being at the topof this notification list.

According to a further embodiment, the search engine may also beconfigured to provide the user with notifications of further specifiedoccurrences, including access of a specified (or book-marked) web-siteby a user contact and/or an associated recommendation to same, orfurther sites accessed after the book-marked site, or of any newmaterial at, or links to, the specified site.

It will be appreciated that all the above-described features associatedwith the toolbar may also be performed by the full search engine.

As the weighted search results and suggestions are correlated to socialnetworks and to the entity's individual identity, an enhancement of therecommendations feature it is possible to allow individual users to makecomments in an appraisal regarding web-sites accessed via the searchengine.

In a further embodiment, the search engine includes means for linking anappraisal with a search result and/or suggestion. Preferably saidappraisal may include a recommendation (optionally graded) and/or usercomments.

In one embodiment, said appraisals are performed via links associatedwith individual results on search results listing. Alternatively, theappraisals may be performed whilst accessing the search result orsuggestion web-site via a link to the search engine. Thus, users couldbe invited to “comment on current site” which may typically involveidentifying sites as particularly useful, useless, curious, or to beavoided and so forth.

The user comments may be in the form of unrestricted typed commentsand/or selected from a predetermined list of appraisal gradings. Suchpredetermined gradings may be used to provide further filter criteriafor suggestions or weighted search results, e.g. only show suggestionsfor web-sites given a good or interesting appraisal grading, oralternatively, ignore “useless” appraisal gradings from user contact X

The appraisals are only visible to user contacts within the personal ororganised networks to which the commentator belongs. Optionally, thecommentator could include their identity or a means to contact them viathe search service. A user inputting user comments on a healthcare sitemay state, “This really worked well for me, but there are some things towatch out for. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss. Click to contact.”

It is noteworthy that by comparison, a comparable system that allowsunrestricted public annotations to web-sites and search results wouldnot be trustworthy or useful because there is no confidence in theidentity or character of the annotator. As an example, an annotationthat a particular product or service is a “good” or “bad” one would lackcredibility without any assurance that the annotator does not work forthe company or for a competitor.

The feature of adding recommendations or appraisals may be readilyextended to relate to issues not directly related to the web-siteitself, as these comments will only be accessible to the user contactsin the user's personal contacts network. An infinite range of commentsare possible, e.g. “A great book; borrow mine if you like”, “This albumrocks. Don't listen to it after 10 pm or you'll be dancing on your bed”,“Nice car but spare parts take months to find in NZ”, “John O'Neill caneat all those tickets in a salad for all I care”, “Careful, this is ascam” and so forth.

The feature of user recommendations may also be used as a factor inweighting the search results. As previously discussed, prior art searchengines allow users to submit web-sites they consider should be includedin the results for a given keywords. However, this system can be open toabuse by webmasters trying to obtain higher rankings for theirweb-sites.

In contrast, the present invention allows users to make recommendations(positive or negative) for web-sites that would cause their ranking toalter in a list of sites for particular keyword searches or suggestionsfor their network of contacts. The search engine system incorporatesfeedback on the efficacy of the recommendations by the reaction of theuser contacts. If the user's contacts concurred with the recommendationsby active or automatically calculated affirmations (either by activevoting or passively by clicking on the recommended web-site), therecommendation could be propagated through the entities in the socialnetwork.

A key advantage of the present invention over prior art systems ofsubmissions to a search engine Webmaster is the discouragement for lowquality submissions. Firstly they would have little effect other thandegrading the search for the user's own personal contacts network ofuser contacts. Secondly, there is little incentive if the userresponsible for repeatedly submitting low quality, misleading orotherwise dubious recommendations is identifiable to their usercontacts.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, users areaccorded a predetermined number of recommendations according to apredetermined user recommendation credibility criteria. In oneembodiment, said recommendation credibility may be determined by activeor automatic affirmations of said user recommendations by the usercontacts. Alternative recommendation credibility criteria may include afixed quota of recommendation over a specified time period, or linked toparticular entity attributes for recommendations for web-sitesassociated with said entity attributes.

Thus, the recommendation credibility criteria may be determinedaccording to a number of factors including (but not limited to)

-   -   users who prove to their user contacts to submit germane        recommendations may ‘earn’ the ability to make additional        recommendations;    -   each user may be give a fixed quota over a given time period,        e.g. 10 recommendation per month;    -   a user with a entity attribute particularly relevant to a        particular search topic, e.g. a consultant paediatrician would        be eligible for more recommendations for results associated with        keyword searches such as “childhood illnesses” and the like.    -   the size and quality of the user's personal social network, e.g.        if they are linked to a lot of users that also have a high        credibility.

A further and potentially very significant advantage is returning asense of control over the search results to the users according to theirown personal experiences and opinions of the web-sites. It is a commoncomplaint of prior art search engines that the results for particularkeywords appear illogical or distorted and that new or emergingweb-sites or those without significant financial/lobbying resources failto achieve worthwhile rankings. The present invention replaces thesearch engine's external control over the search results and empowersthe users to provide meaningful rankings. For example, a user having apersonal web-site can maintain the site as the top ranked result for theuser and the user contacts for certain keywords, e.g. the user's name.The same keyword search by a different entity in a different socialnetwork could give a different search result—though this would be morerelevant to them.

The present invention can also be used to create a list of searches(both within and outside the user's private network of contacts) thathave unsatisfactory or no search results. Some conscientious users mayundertake to locate relevant search results to overcome deficiencies forparticular keywords to help their user contacts and these results can bestored and reused. Consequently, the search results continuously improveover time. Users who provide such submissions could increase theirrecommendation credibility to increase how many recommendations they arepermitted and optionally how far the sites are propagated. Therecommendation credibility for a user could also be linked to theirnumber of user contacts, and/or the number of times people have clickedon suggestion submissions etc.

A further search engine service of the present invention provides ane-mail to users when another user contact has found some pertinentresults for a previous search term used by the user.

Often, individuals within a company or an organised network (e.g.professional association, or club) will perform similar searches. Thissearching work is likely to be useful to others in the same organisednetwork. For example someone in an engineering company searching fordata on a particular material may find a particularly relevant researchreport. The search engine can store these search terms and results andaccord them a higher ranking for other users from the company ororganised network performing the same search. This type of ‘in-house’search activity may be used to create a corresponding list ofsuggestions specific to the members of the organised network/company.

As per the private network searches, the search engine system can beconfigured to include a contact link adjacent the search results andsearch terms to permit contact with others in the company to discusssearch results of relevance. The contact may again be anonymous or not.

In comparison to a conscientious user in a private network addressingdeficiencies in a result for a particular search, a commercial companyor organisation may task an individual with such a task to ensurehomogeneity and reliability for in-house data resources.

A peripheral benefit for companies/organised in sharing results via thepresent invention is that it doesn't add an additional burden on theamount of work already being undertaken by the network members and inmany instances will reduce unnecessary duplication of effort. The searchengine may also be integrated into any existing Intranet search withinthe organised network. Numerous refinements may also be incorporated into the present invention according to the particular requirements of theusers.

A fundamental requirement for ensuring the search engine users engage inmeaningful information sharing via the suggestions and search resultsweighting is to provide the users with the power to discriminate whatweb-activities contribute, or are discernable to user contacts in theirprivate network. A user searching for new employment or concerned abouta potential serious illness affecting their spouse for example may notwant any of the details to be visible to their user contacts.

Thus, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the usermay optionally select web or search activity for exclusion fromcontributing to said indicative information.

There are many possible configurations by which this feature may beimplemented, e.g. having two search buttons labelled “private networksearch” and “Don't share this search” or “private search”. This enablesusers to still conduct searches without being recorded for their usercontacts to share. Alternatively, a simple “private search” check boxmay be used.

In a further embodiment, partner web-sites may use their own brandedversions of the search engine. Thus, instead of just having their URLlink at the top of the popular/recent web-sites suggestions list, thelink could be customised to show the search engine with the partnerweb-site's brand/banner/logo at the top of the page together with use oftheir colours/fonts, layout etc.

According to a yet further aspect, the present invention provides theability for a user to delete searches or web-activity from incorporationin said indicative information. This may be used to remove informationinadvertently included, or to information which appears to the user withhindsight to be unhelpful, misleading or similar. In a furtherembodiment, each user is provided with an editable history log of everysearch they have performed and each web-site visited. The user may edittheir history log and remove any search they did from the list ofsearches that are shared with their contacts, though deletion ofsearches initiated by the user contacts may not be edited.

In a commercial organisation or organised network, the search engine maybe configured to disable any editing of the user's history log and orpreventing any search or web-activity from being included in theindicative information complied by the search invention and discernableto the user contacts. This peer-awareness of the web-activities of theorganisation's members may be used to ensure any inappropriate orunauthorised misuse of internet access may be effectively policedthrough social feedback, irrespective of any overt disciplinary measuresavailable.

Prior art search engines prompt users of additional searches that werealso performed by previous searchers performing the same keyword search,in an analogous manner, the present invention may provide the similarprompts though with the additional feature than the user may be notifiedof the previous user contacts that also performed the same keywordsearch.

In a further embodiment, users can submit recommendations for siteslimited to specific keywords. A user may for example be recommending aspecific site, though only when their company name is one of thekeywords used. If the subsequent evaluation of the site by the usercontacts is positive, with possible positive appraisal/recommendations,the web site may enhance its ranking in networks outside the user'spersonal contacts network.

Although a user may have a number of directly connected user contactsfor example, each may have particular strengths or weaknesses withregard to different searches the user may wish to undertake. Thus, theweighting of individual user contacts may be passively/automatically oractively adjusted based on various criteria such as usefulness of theirbrowsing, reliability of results, their personal tastes, any entityattribute known to the system.

As examples, it may be know that user contact A has a passionateaversion to a particular software multinational and thus theirrecommended or accessed web-sites related to software may reflect thisbias, and thus the user de-weights any input from user contact A forsoftware searches. User contact B may produce excellent recommendationsor searches during working hours but only accesses gaming web-sites outof work hours. The indicative information input from user contact B maythus be de-weighted outside a certain time period.

In a further embodiment, a user may make use of a more active approachto alerting their user contacts to discovering particularly notableweb-sites, rather than the more passive inclusion of the site on thesearch engine suggestions entries in the conventional manner. This maybe achieved in a variety of ways, such as altering the appearance of thesite in the suggestions listing e.g. being bolded, different coloured,appearing in a separate list and/or being e-mailed directly to the usercontact. The suggestions listings themselves may also be distributed toother user contacts and even to unconnected entities via e-mail or phonemessage texts.

The present invention could also be used as a replacement mechanism forthe widespread e-mailing of jokes and the like between friends andworkmates. Essentially, web-sites accessed by the user and ratedaccordingly are replaced by e-mails (optionally with attachments)containing the material to be distributed to all the user contacts.Optionally, distribution may be filtered according to its rating by theuser and subsequently by the user contacts, the various entityattributes of the user contacts or the degree of contact with theentity. Using the present invention in this manner ensures no one ise-mailed the same material twice and potentially offensive material isnot sent to the wrong user contact. It will be appreciated that thematerial need not be jokes, but may instead be any form of information,including text, images, and audio recordings. The system may beconfigured such that such e-mails may be forwarded to a specific linkassociated with the search engine and the subsequent distribution ishandled automatically.

In a further embodiment, the present invention incorporates abook-marking system, whereby a user accessing a notable web-site may usea book-marking feature on the search engine web-site or toolbar to addthe bookmarked web-site to a compilation list of other bookmarked sitesdeemed to be of sufficient interest to the user that they arepermanently retained on the list so as to be continually accessible andavailable.

The present invention may also be used to aid blogging communities tocreate trusted search tools for blog content.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provideda search engine system capable of displaying indicative information to auser from searches performed by entities (or as ‘user contacts’)connected directly or indirectly with the user, wherein said systemincludes;

-   -   at least one host computer processor connectable to one or more        network(s),    -   a database accessible over said network(s),    -   a plurality of data input devices connectable to said        network(s),    -   a search engine accessible over said network(s),    -   wherein said system is capable of forming said private personal        contacts network for each of one or more users by receiving        input from the said user including at least one identifying        characteristic of the user and of one or more chosen entities        known to said user,    -   recording said identifying characteristic of each entity        including the user to form one or more corresponding entity data        records in said database,    -   notifying the or each chosen entity of their recordal on said        system and requesting input of at least one identifying        characteristic of one or more further entities known to the or        each said chosen entity,    -   recording the identifying characteristic of each further entity        inputted by the or each said chosen entity to form further        corresponding entity data records,    -   repeating the above steps of successive notification of further        entities and recordal of the identifying characteristic of each        further entity chosen as further entity data records,    -   providing searchable access to at least part of the entity data        records stored in said database and to the internet.

Searchable access to an entity data record may be restricted by theentity to said user contacts.

Preferably, said data input devices are computer terminals, PDAs,telephones, mobile phones, laptops, notebooks, any other portablepersonal computing device connectable to said network, preferably butnot limited to the internet.

Said data input devices may provide webpage, e-mail, text message, DTMFtone, voice or video access to the said host computer or betweenentities and/or web-browsing access to said host computer via adedicated web-site interface.

The additional data obtained from the entity's identifyingcharacteristics may be used to provide users with the means of obtaininginformation related to specific search applications from within theirown unique extended private personal contacts network of contacts.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provideda method of creating a private personal contacts network for interactionwith a search engine system as described above, said method includingthe steps performed by a processor of a data processing and storagesystem, of:

-   -   receiving input from the said user including at least one        identifying characteristic of the user and at least one chosen        entity known to said user and hereinafter referred to as a user        contact;    -   recording said identifying characteristic of each user contact        including the user to form at least one corresponding user        contact data record in said database;    -   notifying the or each user contact of their recordal on said        system and requesting input of at least one identifying        characteristic of at least one further entity known to the user        contact;    -   recording the identifying characteristic of each further entity        inputted by the or each user contact to form further        corresponding user contact data records;    -   repeating the above steps of successive notification of further        entities and recordal of the identifying characteristic of each        further entity chosen as further user contact data records;    -   providing searchable access to at least part of the user contact        data records stored in said database.

It can thus be seen that the present invention provides a means ofcombining and enhancing the attributes of the earlier search engine andprivate network systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,675 and PCTapplication PCT/NZ02/00199 together with the addition of a powerful setof new inventive features to provide a customisable search engine, withsocial feedback.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description which is given by way of example only and withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1. shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention in theform of a home web-page of an internet search engine;

FIG. 2. shows an extension of the suggestion fields shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3. shows a web-page listing of search results obtained using thepresent invention of a search engine;

FIG. 4. shows a login screen of the present invention;

FIG. 5. shows a membership invitation form for the present invention,and

FIG. 6. is a schematic representation of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a means of harnessing thediscriminatory powers of the knowledge, opinions and recommendations ofan entity's extended network of contacts in an efficient and systematicmanner to provide an effective means of searching the internet (or otherdatabases) with social feedback from the user's personal contactsnetwork. There are numerous potential applications for the presentinvention of which the examples described in more detail below are byway of illustration only.

FIGS. 1-5 show a preferred embodiment of the present invention in theform of an Internet search engine (1) capable of conventional “allinternet” searches or optionally, being customised to display indicativeinformation from entities connected directly or indirectly with the user(2). Any such entity connected to the user (2) in this manner isreferred to as a user contact. In the embodiment shown, all the entitiescomprising the user contacts are individuals, though it will beappreciated that an entity may also be any individual, family, personalor organised network, organisation, club, society, company, partnership,religion, or entity that exists as a particular and discreet unit. Theoperation of the search engine (1) in the performance of standard,uncustomised “all internet” searches is well known to those in the artand is not discussed further herein.

In a departure from prior art search engines, the present inventionsearch engine (1) includes a plurality of suggestions (3). FIG. 1 showsan embodiment with four types of suggestions (3), consisting of recentsearches (4), recent sites (5), popular searches (6) and popular sites(7). Each of these suggestions (3) displays indicative information fromthe user contacts. It will be appreciated that numerous alternativesuggestions may be used without departing from the scope of theinvention.

While the present invention (1) may use any user (2) to supply theindicative information for the suggestions (3), in the preferredembodiment shown, this information is derived from the user contactswith whom the user (2) has some existing relationship, and are membersof a private network (not shown), associated with the user (2). Theprivate network (as more fully described in the co-pending applicationby the same applicant, PCT/NZ02/00199) enables the user (2) tocharacterise the relationship between themselves and their personal usercontacts and to filter/manage interaction with the user contactsaccording to the interrelationship context information defining therelationship. In a preferred embodiment, the interrelationship contextinformation includes a connection factor and one or more entityattributes. The connection factor provides a measure of the degree ofseparation between the user (2) and the user contact, i.e. user contactsknown directly to the user (2) may be termed “direct contacts” whilstuser contacts known to the user (2) via one or more intermediary usercontacts are known as “indirect contacts”. Any 2 entities having nointermediate contacts said to be “disconnected”. Therefore, it can beseen that direct contacts can be termed a 1^(st) order contact whilsttheir own direct contacts will become 2^(nd) order contacts to the user(2) (unless they are also direct contacts of the user (2) as well) andso forth.

The suggestions (3) showed in FIG. 1 represent the web-relatedactivities of the user contacts. The particular user contacts providingdata for the suggestions (3) may be filtered or weighted according tothe individual connection factor with the user (2). The system alsorecords at least one entity attribute (not shown) for each of the usercontacts as part of the interrelationship context information, and thismay include a variety of personal details, information regardingpersonal details, factors or interests; friends; relations; schoolalumni; employment factors; business colleagues; professionalacquaintances; sexual preferences, persuasions, or proclivities;sporting interests; entertainment, artistic, creative or leisureinterests; travel interests, commercial, religious, political,theological or ideological belief or opinions; academic, scientific, orengineering disciplines; humanitarian, social, security/military oreconomic fields and any combination of same.

The entity attributes may also form part of the eligibility criteria forthe user contact to contribute to the suggestions (3). Regarding theindividual suggestions (3), the recent searches (4) denote the mostrecent keywords (8) used by the user contacts. The search engine (1) maybe configured so that the searches by the user (2) are also shown in therecent searches (4) window, giving a real-time indication to the user(2) of the rate of new searches appearing in the recent searches (4)window. An expanded listing (including previous entries) of suggestions(3) may be accessed by a link (9) which leads to the search engine (1)web-page shown in FIG. 2.

The popular searches (6) show a ranking of the most popular keywords (8)used by the user contacts, whilst the popular web-sites (7) show aranked list of web-sites (10) most regularly visited and/or recommendedby the user contacts. The home web-page of the search engine (1) asshown in FIG. 1, also includes the keyword entry field (11) and 2alternative settings to record each search as either “a shared search(12)”, or “a private search (13)”. Clicking on the “shared search link”(12) configures the search engine to record the keywords (8) inputted bythe user (2) for inclusion in the recent searches (4) and also thelisting of web-sites resulting from the search, and any sites accessedthereafter by the user (2) for inclusion in the recent sites (5)listing. FIG. 3 shows the resulting search results (14) for the keyword(8) “skateboard”. It can also be seen that in the recent searches (4)field the term “skateboard” is the most recent keyword (8). In contrast,the popular searches (6) shows the “skateboard” as the second mostpopular search keyword (8), indicating that despite its recent use, theterm “flowboard” has been used more frequently as a keyword (8). If theuser (2) clicks the private search link (13), none of the user's (2)activities would be recorded by the system (1).

The initial search engine (1) web-page shown in FIG. 1 also includeslinks (9) to invite entities to join the user's (2) network and links(9) to configure/see the user's (2) network (15, 16 respectively). Afurther link (17) provides the login/logout feature of incorporating theuser's (2) personal contacts network to interact with the search engine(1).

It can also be seen in FIG. 3 that the search for a keyword (8)skateboard has also yielded a listing of “related web searches found”(18). These related web searches (18) show searches also performed bythe user contacts in conjunction with searches for the keyword (8)skateboard.

In contrast to prior art search engines, the suggestions (3) have fargreater significance to the user (2) as the opinions of the usercontacts are far more likely to be of greater significance and givenmore credibility by the user (2) than suggestions (3) emanating fromdata collected from any ordinary user of the search engine (1). Aspreviously referred to, the user contacts contributing to thesuggestions (3) may be unrestricted, i.e. all contacts contributeequally, or configurable by the user (2) to give a preference orweighting to specific user contacts. This may be based on a variety offactors including the connection factor, (e.g. choosing direct contactsto provide twice the number of suggestions (3) than 2^(nd) degreecontacts), and/or relating to an entity attribute, e.g. the search forthe keyword (8) skateboard may be supplemented by filtering the usercontacts for the suggestions (3) according to an entity attribute of “aninterest in skateboarding”.

A user (2) may find particular user contacts provide interestingselections and/or relevant web-sites and consequently may be given ahigher weighting by placing their suggestions (3) higher up the listingsand/or providing a greater number of inputs. In a further aspect of thepreferred embodiment, the user contacts and the user (2) are providedwith a number of recommendations (not shown). These may be used toincrease the ranking of particular web-sites for keyword (8) searches(optionally, recommendations may be tied to particular keywords (8))and/or may be used to promote sites in the popular sites (7) field.

The number of recommendations given to each user contact may be fixed orvaried according to several eligibility criteria. These may includepositive feedback from other user contacts (either by activerecommendations or by automatic/passive affirmations resulting from usercontacts accessing the recommended web-sites submitted). Alternatively,they may be re-issued after a given time period. User contacts withparticular entity attributes associated with specific keywords (8), mayalso be given additional recommendations, e.g. a computer softwarereviewer may be given supplementary recommendations to appear in therelated web search field (18) and/or associated with particular searchesand specific software-related keywords (8).

The present invention also provides a means of contacting the usercontacts responsible for particular keywords (8) or suggestions (3)and/or those having accessed a particular web-site irrespective ofwhether it appears in the suggestions (3) field. This contact may beanonymously or, via an intermediary web-site or anonymous e-mail oralternatively, the users (2) may agree to their identity being shown bythe system (1).

The ability of the present invention to apply selective input andfiltering from the activities of the user contacts is also of interestfor further web searching and/or information gathering by the user (2)and also reduces potential time wasted on unproductive searches andhelps to more rapidly find relevant results.

The indicative information provided by the user contacts will also beused to weight search results (14) associated with a particular keyword(8). The search weighting may be performed by active recommendationsfrom individual user contacts, thereby promoting particular web-sites orby passive/automatic feedback, as described in the earlier U.S. Pat. No.6,421,675 (and associated applications). U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,675discloses a powerful means of weighting search results according to thebehaviour of the user's accessing results listing. According to thosecriteria, a site may be deemed more useful if a user accesses the linkand either remains on the site for a predetermined time and/or performsother actions indicating the site has relevance, i.e. downloadingmaterial, following related links, reading additional pages orsubscribing to material at the site. Conversely, if a web-site isaccessed and immediately exited, this implies the site was of littlerelevance for the search keyword. These techniques may also beincorporated in the present invention in addition to the refinement ofgiving increased weighting according to which entities performed thesearch, i.e. the user contacts. Thus, the selections and associatedsearches performed by a direct contact may be considered of greatersignificance than an indirect contact and/or the behaviour of anunconnected entity and used to weight the results accordingly.

In a further embodiment, the features of the search engine (1), and inparticular the suggestions (3) may be combined into a minimised toolbarwhich forms part of a stay-resident program running in conjunction withthe user's (2) web-browser (not shown). The toolbar may also monitor theweb-sites visited by the user (2) and in turn suggest additionalweb-sites that have previously been accessed by other user contacts whohave also visited the same site and/or performed the same searchesleading to that site.

In a further embodiment (not shown), the search engine (1) may becustomised to be the search engine for a particular web-site and havethe option of restricting the search to the material on the hostweb-site. A corresponding list of suggestions (3), may thus be createdrelating to the activity of the user's (2) user contacts who havevisited the web-site. The suggestions (3) may be expanded to includelists of products either accessed and/or recommended by the usercontacts.

The present invention may also be used with organised networks such ascompanies, institutes, or any other network whereby all the members haveat least one common entity attribute and connection factor, i.e. theyare all members of an organisation and are direct contacts respectively.The present invention provides the capability of treating such organisednetworks as either a single entity, with its own collective entityattributes, or as a collection of individual user contacts, each havingthe organised network as a common entity attribute. Numerous refinementsare possible with the present invention such as the ability for theusers (2) to actively mark web-sites of particular merit by ensuringtheir appearance in the suggestions (3) is suitably distinct (e.g. in adifferent font, or bold, or the like) and/or by sending an e-mail tochosen user contacts alerting to the web-site. It will be seen thatbefore the user (2) has any user contacts registered for use with thesystem and able to impact on the web activities and searches of the user(2), it will be necessary to populate the suggestions (3) fields fromnon user contact entities. Even when sufficient user contacts areavailable, such disconnected entities may still be used to contribute tothe suggestions (3) if so desired by the user (2).

Nevertheless, the paramount aspects of the benefits of the presentinvention relate to the incorporation of the personal private networkfor the user (2). In order to access this feature of the search engine(1), the user (2) uses the login/logout link (17) which leads to theweb-page (21) shown in FIG. 4. Existing users (2) enter their e-mail andpassword (19) whilst new users deciding to sign up to the network submittheir first and last name, preferred e-mail address, location and newpassword via corresponding input fields (20). Upon joining the searchengine (1) registered members, the user (2) may then invite his or heracquaintances to become members, i.e. their user contacts.Alternatively, the user (2) who themselves have been invited to join thesystem by an existing member. FIG. 5 shows a web-page form (22) forinviting entities currently unconnected to the user's (2) network tojoin.

It will be appreciated that the present invention may be implemented innumerous physical configurations. Although the present invention may beimplemented in any suitable environment with a searchable database on anetwork, the preferred embodiment as shown in FIG. 6 is described withrespect to use on the internet (23) in which a plurality of users (notshown) may access the search engine (1) through the internet (23) via aplurality of user sites (24) such as personal computers, laptops, mobilephones, PDAs or the like.

It will be appreciated that FIG. 1 is symbolic only and that theinternet (2) is actually composed of a multitude of user sites (24) andthat searchable data may be obtained from a plurality of data sources(25). It will be appreciated that the data sources (25) may representnumerous data sources including one or more personal contact networks(26) individually associated with one or more users. Moreover, althoughthe search engine (1) is depicted as a single device, it may bedistributed across a network environment including one or more datastorage means (not shown), databases, server computers, processors andalthough these are not explicitly shown, they are genericallyrepresented and encompassed by representation of the search engine (1).

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of exampleonly and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions maybe made thereto without departing from the scope thereof.

What is claimed:
 1. A method of providing search suggestions to a userentity, said method performed by a search engine system accessible overa network, said network having a plurality of data input devicesconnected thereto, said search engine system including at least onecomputer and a database of entity data records, each data recordrelating to a corresponding entity and containing one or more entityattributes including at least one identifying characteristic of saidcorresponding entity, said method including the steps of: receiving andrecording at least one search from at least one contact in the userentity's personal contact network, said at least one contact's searchincluding at least one keyword; providing indicative information to saiduser entity, said indicative information including search suggestionsderived from said at least one contact's search, said search suggestionsincluding at least one said keyword derived independently of said userentity inputting any search keyword; receiving from the user entity aselection of a said search suggestion, and performing a search usingsaid selected search suggestion.
 2. A method as claimed in claim 1,wherein the search engine system assigns said search suggestion anassociated decay factor, the decay factor indicating how long the searchsuggestion is provided to the user entity.
 3. A method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said searches include an interrogation of a databasevia a network.
 4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said datainput devices include mobile phones and said searches include a searchof web-sites via the Internet.
 5. A method as claimed in claim 1,wherein said search suggestions include recent searches, includingkeywords used in said contact's searches within a predetermined periodof time.
 6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said searchsuggestions include popular searches, comprising keywords ranked as themost popular keywords used in said searches.
 7. A method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said personal contacts network is formed from contactsconnected directly or indirectly to the user entity, said connectionsrecorded in entity data records in said database.
 8. A method as claimedin claim 1, wherein said search suggestions include keywords fromsearches by multiple contacts.
 9. A method as claimed in claim 1,including the further step of providing interrelationship contextinformation to said user entity from said user entity's personal contactnetwork, the interrelationship context information including aconnection factor between said user entity and said contact, theconnection factor indicative of the degree of separation between saidcontact and said user entity.
 10. A method as claimed in claim 1,including the further step of providing interrelationship contextinformation to said user entity, the interrelationship contextinformation including one or more entity attributes of said contact. 11.A method as claimed in claim 1, including receiving a selective inputfrom the user entity to filter said search suggestions, said selectiveinput being a selection of contacts filtered according to at least onefilter criteria.
 12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein theselective input includes at least one of: an elapsed period since thesuggestion creation, a predetermined activity, interrelationship contextinformation, a connection factor or entity attribute.
 13. A method asclaimed in claim 1, including notifying the user entity which subsequentwebpages are accessed by said contact when the user entity accesses afirst webpage previously accessed by said contact.
 14. A method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said indicative information includes searchsuggestions weighting.
 15. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein theuser entity is provided with an interface between the search enginesystem and the personal contacts network unique to the user entity. 16.A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein access to the interrelationshipcontext information between the user entity and their contacts isrestricted, the user entity defining the restricted access.
 17. A methodas claimed in claim 1, wherein the search engine system weights thesearch suggestions associated with the contacts providing the searchsuggestions most frequently chosen by the user entity.
 18. A method asclaimed in claim 1, including providing search suggestions to a userentity, said method performed by a search engine system accessible overa network, said network having a plurality of data input devicesconnected thereto, said search engine system including: at least onecomputer and a database of entity data records, each data recordrelating to a corresponding entity and containing one or more entityattributes including at least one identifying characteristic of saidcorresponding entity, said method including: receiving and recording atleast one search from at least one contact in the user entity's personalcontact network, said contact's search including at least one keyword;providing indicative information to said user entity, said indicativeinformation including search suggestions derived from said contact'ssearch, wherein said search suggestions include at least one saidkeyword, wherein said personal contacts network is formed by: receivinginput from said user entity including at least one identifyingcharacteristic of the user entity, recording said identifyingcharacteristic of said user entity in said corresponding entity datarecord in said database, receiving input from said user entity includingat least one identifying characteristic of other user entities forinclusion as a said contact in said user entity's personal contactnetwork, recording said identifying characteristic of said contact insaid user entity's data record in said database, providing searchableaccess to said user entity of at least part of the entity data recordsstored in said database.
 19. A method as claimed in claim 18, furtherincluding: notifying each contact of their recordal on said system andrequesting input of at least one identifying characteristic of one ormore further entities known to said contact, recording the identifyingcharacteristic of each further entity inputted by said contact in thecontact's corresponding entity data record, repeating the above steps ofsuccessive notification of further entities and recordal of theidentifying characteristic of each further entity in their correspondingentity data record.
 20. A method as claimed in claim 18, including:inviting said other user entities to join said user entity's personalcontact network, recording in the user entity's entity data record theother user entities joining said user entity's personal contact networkas contacts of the user entity.
 21. A search engine system providingsearch suggestions to a user entity, said search engine systemaccessible over a network, said network having a plurality of data inputdevices connected thereto, said search engine system including at leastone computer and a database of entity data records, each data recordrelating to a corresponding entity and containing one or more entityattributes including at least one identifying characteristic of saidcorresponding entity, said computer programmed to: receive and record atleast one search from at least one contact in the user entity's personalcontact network, said contact's search including at least one keyword;provide indicative information to said user entity, said indicativeinformation including search suggestions derived from said at least onecontact's search, wherein said search suggestions include at least onesaid keyword derived independently of said user entity inputting anysearch keyword.
 22. A method of providing search suggestions to a userentity, said method performed by a search engine system accessible overa network, said network having a plurality of data input devicesconnected thereto, said search engine system including at least onecomputer and a database of entity data records, each data recordrelating to a corresponding entity and containing one or more entityattributes including at least one identifying characteristic of saidcorresponding entity, said method including the steps of: receiving andrecording at least one search from at least one contact in the userentity's personal contact network, said at least one contact's searchincluding at least one keyword; preceding a search being made by saiduser entity with the provision of indicative information includingsearch suggestions derived from said contact's search, wherein saidsearch suggestions include at least one said keyword.